The CLA has given a mixed response to the Government’s Productivity Plan, welcoming recognition that specific actions are needed to boost the rural economy while arguing the proposals fall short on issues such as broadband speed.

The plan sets out a number of methods for encouraging rural growth, long-term investment and diversification, which, according to CLA director of policy Christopher Price, makes for a refreshing change.

“Too often Government can see the countryside as a beauty spot alone rather than also as a place where people live and work,” he said.

“This is a strong plan that recognises the rural economy’s important contribution to the national economy and sets out specific plans for boosting rural productivity.

“We look forward to working with Government to ensure delivery on the ground.”

Specifically, he welcomed moves to encourage the adoption of local plans, suggesting that it was otherwise too easy for planning authorities to block projects that could help rural businesses invest and grow, or enable people in the countryside to live near their workplaces.

Local plans, he said, should act as a mechanism for delivering the right developments in the right places – essential for building a strong economy as well as thriving communities.

“They should also help prevent less strategically planned wind farm applications and reduce delivery by costly appeal,” he added.

“With around half of England’s planning authorities failing to adopt a local plan to date, this obstruction has become a stranglehold on rural areas across the country.

“We have been calling for Government to take action and we are very pleased to see the reforms which allow Ministers to force local authorities to issue plans to a defined and enforceable timescale.”

Mr Price was also enthusiastic about the proposed review of the threshold for the conversion of agricultural buildings into residential, suggesting delivery of rural housing had thus far been “woeful” and that the Government now seemed prepared to “circumvent obstructive planning authorities” to help reverse the trend.

On the downside, however, he added: “We remain concerned about the extension of Right to Buy to Housing Association tenants, which will turn the already challenging situation into a catastrophe for delivery of affordable housing in the countryside.

“Across the countryside there are landowners that want to provide land for affordable housing; they understand that this means selling it at less than market value for this purpose.

“They will not do this if they know the homes will eventually be sold off into the open market and not kept for those in most need within their communities. It is therefore vital Ministers put in place a specific exemption from the policy for homes in rural communities, for continued existence of an affordable rental sector in rural areas.”

Too many people in the countryside, likewise, were still having to put up with slow or nonexistent broadband connections.

Mr Price said: “It is a missed opportunity that this plan does not set out a specific Universal Service Obligation of at least 10 megabits per second on network providers for all rural homes and businesses, including the last 5%.

“This is the only way to give rural communities and businesses the confidence that the discrimination they face will end.

“We agree that the code governing access to land for mobile and broadband equipment (the Electronic Communications Code) should be reformed.

“We will work with Government to ensure that this is done quickly.

“It is vital that the code strikes a fair and workable balance to ensure that we get more infrastructure in our rural areas, but not in a way that imposes disproportionate costs and burdens on farmers and other landowners.”

The CLA, which has around 33,000 members, supports landowners by advising them on how best to protect and maximise their assets.

CLA members own or manage approximately half the rural land in England and Wales.